The Keepers of the King's Peace

ay "providential," for it was notorious that he was an evil man, a drinker of beer and a favourite of many bad persons. Also he made magic in the forest, and

th green leaves and arm in arm staggered and stamped through the village street in their death dance, there w

hat it was shameless. But he was old and was, moreover, in fear for the decorum of his own obsequ

d and had wailed her conventional grief, she washed the dust from her body at the river's edge and we

gifts. It is said that they appeared one night after a great storm wherein lightning played such

choked by a fish-bone and was in extremis when M'lama put her hand upon his head and straightway the bone flew f

ible fit and M'lama had laid her hand upo

heard of these happenings and came a t

stories of mir

a true witch and has great gifts, for she raises the dead by the touch of her hand. This I have seen. Also it is

M'lama," said A

nes idly. These were the shanks of goat

wife who is sick, also a first-born boy who does

tted down

hing that is not the talk of riv

andi, will send you a book which w

rings me happiness. Also it is common talk that at this time there come messen

she tried h

finger which none ca

inced, pulling back his hand-but the year-old dislocation which had defied the effort of the coa

sed, for a native has a horror of deformity of any ki

launch and had brought Captain Hamilton of the Houssas a very bulky letter written in a feminine hand. He had broken the glad news to Comm

" he said, "this part of the country

on scornfully. "What the dickens

end of the verandah, and his roar

on

wer and for an e

w, his helmet on the back of hi

s he?" h

ton t

idn't ask him, he volunteere

nvasion?" as

ton g

ve me tips on the way a trench should be dug-he's feeling rotten

rs no

you ... you're a jolly good soldier, H

hrugged hi

d quietly. "After all, it is one's business to ... to do one's job in the stat

s hand on the o

lue eyes were as soft and as tender as a woman's. "There is

rott

ere are others. Think of the men in India eating their hearts out ... praying for the order that will carr

ooked wistfully

corporal who was crossing t

queer coast Arabic, "where sha

which begin at the back of the Residency and

ny strange things-also there wen

ndow of the bungalow and fished out

y; "he's been gone three hours an

working party, but when it was f

t the brim rested on the bridge of his nose, his thin red arms were folded on his breast, and their gentle rise

all that was visible was a very broad stretch of brown satin skin which showe

unconscious Bones for

ck him?" asked Hamilton. "Y

rowned th

em of communicating trenches," he said. "He's

shook h

He will say that I kept him up so late last night worki

slep

suggested Sanders after a while; "he said th

hink he'll offer that suggestion now-the only other excuse I can th

ght ear of Lieutenant Tibbetts, twiddling the end delicately. B

ed him less gently. "Get up, you

ggered a little; blinked fierce

" he reported stiffly. "Shall

" begged Hamilton,

inked mo

scious, dear old officer,"

verybody," said Ha

half the night with those jolly old accounts of yours, got the better of me. I was sittin' down workin' out one of the dinkiest littl

looked di

ything with the Bomon

ame to Bo

, "that was it, of course.... Th

k to the bungalow," Hamilton interru

rred the second sleeper

iggled roun

ly fat, but it was not fat of the flabby type. Though he called himself Ali, it was, a

d first his master, then Sa

er had taken on a British man-of-war. Ali Abid had been the heaven-sent servant, and though

e account of whose researches in the field of tropical medicines fill eight volumes of closely

o the Residency, A

s," said Sanders; "there may be some tro

murmured Hamilton, but Bo

get back before the

" asked

d to hear a statement repeated-though he had heard it well enough the first time-he would bend his head with

ssioner said," growled Ha

until April, your Ex

but what's the use?"

," said Sanders. "We are giving a

urned an incredulou

er, surely, dear ol

ldn't I have a sister

ugged his

d lovin' influence in your lonely an' unsympathetic upbringin'; hardness of heart an' a

ton; "and she's looking forward to seeing

s sm

usioned. What you ought to have done, sir, is to describe me as a sort

ton n

pounds, and how you fell into the water looking for buried treasure, and how the Isisi tried to sell yo

u've said e

ry red and v

ss Hamilton will see very little of me. An inflexible sense of duty will ke

said Hamil

with pain, saluted, and turning on his heel, st

amilton came down to the concrete quay to see the Zaire

er; if she has too big a hold on them, arrest h

get the 17th,"

keleton at your jolly old festive board, dear old sportsman-you will excuse my abs

and looked, as he desired to look, a melancholy figure with his huge pi

t he became his

t it in old Sanders' cabin, make me a cup of tea

said Ali in exc

documents which never come under the eye of the

uarters sounded 10.32. Interrogated Captain of the hostile craft and warned him n

ver? What though Bones's "hostile craft" was a dilapidated canoe, manned by one aged and bewildered man of the Isisi engaged

ones went ashore to conduct his investigations. It chanced that the evening had been chosen by

t her-leaving her a respectable space for her operations. A bright fire crackled and glowed at her side, and into this, from time to time, she thrust l

be silent, lest my great ju-ju stri

oman, her face wrinkled with appreh

red forward a

thee who shall be greater than chiefs; also you wil

k

e career the witch had sketched for her unborn son, the woman st

e fire, was withdrawn and blown ou

death and disaster. Into this shuddering group strode Bones, very finely clad in white

their knuckles at their teeth, for th

nd spoke in the soft dialect of the I

lenly, divining t

here is a great sickness for you-and behold you w

ook an indignant forefinger

ered. "You're depressin' the people-you nau

English she was

ub, by Jove!" he stormed; "tellin' stories ... oh, d

ong enough to discover whether or not her ju-ju would strike him dead, and bein

aded him by the simple expedient of burying her sharp white teeth in the fleshy part of his arm-and bo

with excitement, was honourably wounded by the chan

!" he commanded breathlessl

got under way Ali came to h

hear," he said, "that the female pr

led Bones, gently touching the pat

"the subject has developed symptoms of mania, and has en

es?" gasped Bones, his h

songo was well within the sphere of the River Mission, and so M'lama's costume consisted of a tight-fitting piec

f the prison cabin, and steadfa

lam

me, and he

river dialect, "what shall Sand

ly, only a snuff

sobbed t

e ship at the waters which foamed past her low hull; "for if my lord Sandi see you as I see you-I mean as I wouldn't for the world see you, you improper person," he corrected himself hasti

wo words wer

near by, and here Bones stopped and interv

d the way to his storehouse. "I've known 'em to tear up their clo

ig box and produce

of dresses, hats, stockings and shoes. "If they'd sent a roll or two of print I might have used

g, and showering the chuckling priest with an incoherent

of the little deck-house, "there are many grand things such as gre

literary exercise when the tiny steamer charged a sandbank, and before her engi

tuation and returned to his ca

i Bay. Fear vessel total wreck

ower them, because the crew were already standing in the river (up

the river, swollen by heavy rains in the Ochori region, lifted the Zaire c

al she had bitten, there was no sign of a return to her evil ways. She wore a white pique skirt and a white blouse, and on her head she bala

d Bones, shuddering at

. Sanders had partly cleared and wholly drained four square miles of the little peninsula on which the Residency st

anks. Bones had locked away his journal and was standing on the bridge rehearsing the narrative which was to impress his superiors with a sens

ilton's sister at odd

ank so closely that a bold and agil

tch, was both

inine leap the space between deck and shore, two heliotr

Bones, but she had disappeared into the undergrowth before t

He remembered in that moment of crisis, the distressing propensity of his prisoner to the "eradication of garments." With one stride he was in his cabin

e glimpsed the white of a pique dress, and w

yards; the counterpane was flung over her head, and though she kicked and struggled and

ross this he passed with his burden

asped; "open the door-no

ced to helpless silence, slammed the door and le

this happened almost within sight of the quay on which Sanders and Ham

ose which will be noted in the margin of my report-one female prisoner secured after

amilton. "Come along and meet my s

h one accord to

between them a bedraggled M'lama, her skirt all awr

got away again.... That's my

ton f

tened Pat ... she was wa

from under him, but he recovered by

y, "accidents ... error of judgment ..

demanded Sanders in alarm, for

lked with unsteady steps to the lock-up,

s a little scared, too, I suspect), the most radiant and lo

brother to Sanders, from Sande

rth--" bega

nd she fell into a fit o

excess of zeal I mistook ... in the

rms in a gesture of

eman.... I have a loaded revol

mbfounded chief, tripped up over a bucket a

reserve his sense of annoyance. "Pat-this is Li

Bones, her eyes m

the first," she sai